Originally Posted by
Treed
Having flown forest health flights for the last fifteen years... Balsam bark beetle is typically less than .05% of a stand. What we are seeing is not typical but is our new reality. Don’t worry about the fires, the true harbingers of doom are the bugs, pathogens, and stress on trees - but the fires will follow. Unbelievable the state of so many of our forests. Yellow cedar decline on the central coast due to low snow packs, warming periods and frosts has killed hundreds of thousands of hectares and nobody even knows about it except for a few forest health experts. Look at the dead top cedar all up the island hwy due to summer droughts. I was on Haida Gwaii this summer and couldn’t believe how extensive the die back was of 300 year old cedar - drought related I think. I was also in Tweedsmiur this summer, the epi-centre of the pine beetle. What a waste land of dead trees. Pine beetle, white bark pine and blister rust, spruce bark beetle, balsam bark beetle, and fire. Moose sign was so absent it was shocking. Don’t get me started on the poor health of all the pine plantations in the interior due to planting densities and rusts. Our forests are in worse shape than ever and after over a decade of minimal investment in inventory, we dont have a clue how empty the cupboard is. Combine this with salvage harvesting, and fires, no wonder ungulate populations are in flux.